New PowerLifting Magazine

So, if you miss Powerlifting USA like I do, you may be interested in this new mag, 6 issues/yr, print and online, depending on what subscription you choose. I don't know anything about them, know very little about the market trends that led to PL USA's demise after a helluva run, or about how they will affect the success or failure chances of this new one, so I can 't recommend OR criticize.

Loved me some PLUSA. When it came out some other PL mag had just failed, can't remember the name of the mag or the owner, so I exercised caution and did not sub. to PLUSA for maybe a yr or so. Love at first sight when I took the plunge, and I ordered all the back-orders I'd missed, I had every damn issue from Vol 1, Number 1 at one time. First coupla years, it was about 6" x 8" , kind of a cheap un-glossy paper, all black and white. It had that almost secret, off-the-road, backroom, cult, unknown-to-the-public charm to it that the original Iron Man did too, before the Raders sold it and it was "improved."

There was another PL mag that hit the ground running somewhere in the last ten yrs or so, had an online presence too, store, discussion board, the works. Don't remember the name of that one either, the clue I do remember is that it came out of Idaho, a town with a weird French name from back in the old fur trapper days I guess. That one also failed shortly after I bought a 2 or 3 yr subscription, hence my cautious comments in my OP. This newer one came out some yrs before Mike Lambert pulled PLUSA, so maybe it just couldn't compete with Lambert for marketshare. Now, the market is open, and way larger than when PLUSA launched. Hopefully Powerlifter Today will prosper.

I was all excited when Power magazine came out. Then, over the course of my year subscription I watched it change in to a big slingshot advertisement with nothing but coverage of Bell's meets and his buddies.

As soon as Bell pussied out of multi ply the whole magazine went ( not just raw, but ) SUPER RAAAAWWWW...... would never waste money on his crap again. Hopefully this provides a good balance and coverage like the old PLUSA had.....

Bonus memories for you young folk: PLUSA did PL mostly but had other strength sports as well. A monster named Cleve Dean was the absolute king of wrist wrestling for a short while back in the late 70's - early 80's(?) A naturally strong pig farmer from rural USA, 6'8" tall, well up into the 400's in weight, he was "clocked" one time @ 465lbs. Some conjecture at the time of what he could do in PL, although he was said to be a stranger to the weights, and strapped with back troubles. PLUSA ran a pic of him lumbering away from the camera, cited the 465 bodyweight, said Cleve was gonna drop the 3 lbs, and enter both the 220lb and 242lb class in the next contest.

Same time period, either early PLUSA or original Iron Man, can't remember, Dennis Wright owned the 181lb class in the USA. Could never catch the great English lifter Ron Collins due to a weak deadlift, but his subtotals crushed all but Collins for a while. Writing in one of those mags, Terry Todd, who kinda pioneered "erudite" in musclehead articles, observed that "Dennis' nemesis is the deadlift" (it's better if you say it out loud).

Little gems from little known magazines that were hard to find on newstands, you pretty much had to stumble on one somewhere, and then subscribe.

I may be overdue to give credit where credit's due. Wheyrage is a brother here who also runs Sons of Iron, a board that is similar to TID although considerably less busy. SOI seems to get daily posts from powerliftingwatch, that's the only way I stay in the loop atm, and where I got the powerliftertoday mag news. In a post from 2 days ago, it sounds (I am guessing here) like powerliftingwatch is behind powerliftertoday, and it was said the online issue would arrive immediately, and the print version would take "about 10 days." Indecisive twat that I am, I haven't subscribed yet, been arguing with myself about which to get. Finally decided that I am getting too much like those newspaper stories and reality tv shows about "hoarders," so I will go for only the online version, and that means "now." Hope to be back with initial impressions sometime tomorrow, if their "immediately" means what mine does.